Dead Echos
by SavageViper
Summary: AU. Set in 1999, Voldemort is dead though at the cost of many of those nearest and dearest to Harry. Harry Potter himself has been in a constant state of depression for the last two years drowning his sorrows in Vodka despite being an Auror. Harry's friendship with his godmother and close friend Bellatrix Black is all that keeps him going. Until old enemies from his past return.
1. Drunken Lullabies

DISCLAIMER! I do not own Harry Potter, Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling.

(Note) This is a (Harry / Dora Tonks) Fic, and it is intended to be M-Rated.

(Chapter 1) A Drunken Lullaby

It had been two long years since the defeat of who the Wizarding world had known, as the most feared Dark Lord of modern times, Voldemort. Yet the world wasn't right, a dark haired young man with piercing Emerald Green eyes and a wicked scar on his forehead sat alone in a dimly lit muggle tavern. He'd been coming here to drown his sorrows once a week over the last two years, the barman had his order memorized by now, Vodka. It was always Vodka with a lemon twist over the rocks.

The barman was a rough, though amiable enough, older man who'd seen the hardest shit life could throw at a man. After all he'd fought in Viet Nam back in 74, came away from that Hellhole with his mind nearly in pieces and a slight limp when he walked. Shrapnel they couldn't remove from his leg, a grim token of his services to his country as it were. The old man had decided to leave the US for Scotland not long after his discharge. He knew from the way his regular carried himself that the younger man was like him a soldier of sorts, but as he never made conversation the old barman never asked his story.

Little did the muggle barman know that his regular 11 o'clock drunk was Harry James Potter, Savior of the Wizarding World. The drunk in question was once again lost in the nightmares in his past that followed him from sleeping into his waking life, he saw the faces of all those that this damned war had taken from him, His parents, Sirius, Remus, Cedric, Ron, and Ginny. No matter how much he tried to drown himself in the booze he could never get drunk enough to chase away the pain he felt.

A heavily battered and scarred man wearing a patch to hide the magical eye from the muggles stumped in through the tavern door his presence announced as much by the dull sound the clawed prosthetic leg he wore as by the door-chime. Ignoring the few patrons the old Auror, Mad-Eye Alastor Moody as he was known glanced around the bar. Sensing no threat from anyone present, he made his way over to the dark corner where his wasted protege sat quitely contemplating the remains of his glass. Two years of relative peace would have dulled the reflexes of most but Moody was as old school as they came and he had not survived his 70 odd years by being careless. He had done his best to ingrain his own instincts into the drunken man he now stood beside, who had yet to take note of his presence.

With a grunt of impatience he made his presence known to his younger war-time comrade "If you want to drown yourself there's better tasting swill around than this shite." Startled by the voice the younger man made to grab the knife he kept concealed in his boot and fell backwards off his barstool in the process. Moody bit back a chuckle, every Sunday morning at one am he'd come here to take Harry home to his flat in Manchester, they'd exchange a brief (and in Harry's case drunk) conversation before Moody would depart for his own home.

Then at nine am, Moody would head over to the ministry to get to work as an Auror Academy Instructor and of course he'd invariably end up running into Harry around lunch break looking much better after taking a hangover antidote. Well better in the fact he wasnt stumbling over his own feet in a drunken stuper anyways, his tormented soul was reflected clearly by the pained, haunted look that never left his face. Moody knew all to well why the pain was there. Harry couldn't escape the Hell in his mind no matter how hard he tried and after so long, he'd finally broken and taken up heavy drinking always blaming himself for the deaths of his friends and family.

Harry had learned of his relation to Bellatrix through Sirius during his third year in Hogwarts, after the infamous Black cousins had escaped from Azkaban. They had been believed to be responsible for the Murder of Peter Pettigrew and Rabastan Lestrange along with 19 muggles. Later Harry uncovered proof of their innocence, and with Dumbledore's help arranged for a trial that ultimately decided Sirius and Bellatrix to be innocent of all (albeit false) charges.

Just two short years later Harry had a terrible vision and believed Bellatrix had been captured by Voldemort and Harry had taken a group of his to infiltrate the Ministry in an attempt to rescue her. When Sirius and Bellatrix learned of this, Sirius charged off to the ministry after forbidding Bellatrix from going with him. He had told her he couldn't live with himself should anything happen to her. Despite the best efforts of the Order of the Phoenix, Sirius perished while dueling Rodolphus who still believed Sirius had murdered his brother. The rest of the Order had been fighting over a dozen death eaters before Voldemort himself joined the fight.

Harry had seen Rodolphus land the killing curse on Sirius and broke away from Remus' restraint and Harry attempted using the Cruciatus curse on Lestrange. When the curse failed to harm the deranged death eater, he laughed in the boy's face _"you have to truly wish to inflict pain to use it. sheer anger won't get you far."_ The Dark Lord had stepped up to Harry and forced him into a duel, and Harry had managed to hold his own for ten minutes before Dumbledore came to his rescue and took over the fight.

Harry was badly shaken by the death of his Godfather, and it took time to come to terms with it. Bellatrix, was constantly there supporting him and she made it easier to cope with his Godfathers death. Despite her being 20 years older than him, Harry saw her as an older sister rather than a mother figure. Harry still blamed himself, if he hadn't been tricked by Voldemort, if he'd known more dangerous curses, if he could have caught up to Roldophus faster. Then maybe Sirius might still be alive. It was still hard for him to accept his death, as the war dragged on and more of his loved ones died around him it tore him apart.

Finally he fulfilled the prophecy the night he used his own body to shield Hermione from Voldemort's killing curse. In that instant his soul became purely his own and the fragment of the Dark Lords soul that had resided within his body was destroyed. A mere 2 hours later and it was over, he fought his way through the final battle in the middle of Hogwarts. He caught up to Rodolphus and let fly the killing curse to hear Voldemort scream in all his fury as Tom watched his last Lieutenant fall. Harry engaged the Dark Lord in a short but brutal duel which saw Voldemort realize he had been forced into mortality again shortly before Harry achieved victory over the once feared Lord Voldemort ending the battle for good with an over powered exploding hex.

After the war Bellatrix was reinstated to the Auror core as an Auror Captain and she along with the retired Auror, Moody, had been Harry's instructors when he enrolled in the Auror Academy. Bellatrix didnt take it easy on Harry just because they were family, as Moody said it best, _"The war may be over but, new threats can arise anytime. You must be at your best at all times, constant vigilance!"_ With little action however Harry became restless and despite everything often found himself pondering the deaths of his friends so he had turned to drinking.

Back at the muggle tavern yet again, Harry contemplated how his friends, (those that had survived the war) and how they dealt with their own losses. As he drank his usual vodka lost in his thoughts an attractive older woman with long dark hair wearing a black muggle spring dress entered the tavern. As the woman walked to the end of the bar, Harry sensed her presence and turned to look at her, eyes widening slightly in recognition, "Bella?" Bellatrix gave him a small smile, "Time to go home Harry." He nodded and placed a 20 pound note on the bar to cover his tab and the pair left together.

Stumbling slightly in the alleyway behind the pub Harry took Bellatrix's offered hand and allowed her to apparate them to his flat in Manchester. Appearing in his living room he released her hand and thanked Bella for the hangover potion she gave him before he started for his bedroom Bella spoke calmly to him, "Harry you can't keep drinking your sorrows away no matter how much you want to." Harry allowed himself to fall back onto the loveseat sofa before replying in a slightly slurred voice. "I know Bella... it's just hard... I lost so much in that damned war..."

Bella nodded her understanding, thinking back to that summer Harry had turned sixteen. It had been horrible for him he'd only known Sirius a short time, Bella had desperately wanted to go to the ministry with Sirius when they'd found out what Harry had done. She took his loss as hard as Harry had for the longest time she had blamed herself for his death unaware that Harry had felt it his fault. It had been this shared grief that had brought them together and allowed them to forge a brother and sisterly bond. Harry hadn't ever outright said so but Bellatrix had sensed that their growing friendship was the only thing giving Harry the strength he needed to continue fighting the war.

Harry then spoke up snapping Bellatrix out of her thoughts. "Bella, will you stay with me tonight, at least for a while?" Bellatrix nodded her acquiescence at once. Settling herself down in the armchair next to the sofa Harry laid on, she conjured a pair of blankets giving him one and dimmed the lights with her wand as she began softly singing an old Welsh hymn her father had sang to her as a young child. She knew Harry liked her singing the lullaby though she didn't know why it always brought her some small comfort to sing it as much as it comforted Harry.

Harry was by no means a boy at 22 years of age but his life had been Hell and sometimes he felt so vulnerable despite the war being long over. Harry enjoyed Bella's singing even in his heavily intoxicated state it soothed his mind, allowing him to fall into a peaceful sleep.

Bellatrix woke up early next morning saw Harry still asleep contentedly on the sofa, smiling at his sleeping form she rose slowly from the reclining armchair she'd slept in. Knowing he wouldn't mind her leaving she apparated to Grimmauld place, (Sirius had left the house to Harry and Bellatrix in his will as the last surviving members of the Black Line) to change into her Auror robes before heading into the Minstry to begin her work for the day glad shed been reinstated as an Auror Captain after the defeat of Voldemort.


	2. Nightmare Alive

Disclaimer! I still do not own Harry Potter nor will I ever own the rights to Harry Potter. Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling.

\-- Nightmare Alive --

(Ch. 2)

As Harry woke up a couple of hours after Bellatrix had left his first thought of the day as usual was to drown his misery in alcohol. Harry set out for the tavern in muggle Scotland that Moody had called "Potter's favorite watering hole." Upon arrival he immediately made his way over to his usual corner of the pub at the end of the bar. The old barman didn't remark about Harry showing up much earlier than usual and instead brought over Harry's drink.

Harry looked down at his watch seeing that it was noon he made his decision. Glad that he had the day off from the Auror Office (Not that he did anything more than glance through a stack of paperwork and check in with his boss, DMLE Head Amelia Bones.) Today Harry resolved to finally drink his misery away even if it killed him. Calling the barman over he put down a hundred pound note and simply said in a hollow voice "Keep the vodka coming til that's gone."

\-- (Scene Break) --

Fleur Delacour contemplated the misery that her life had become as she made her way through muggle Scotland looking for another tavern. After being kicked out of several wizarding pubs the only place she could find strong drink at were muggle pubs. The beautiful quarter Veela detested muggle society, muggle men were as bad as wizards when it came to her allure. In her mind the events that caused her life to spiral out of control that had occurred just 4 months earlier played over again and again.

~~~~~ Fleur stood in front of the burrow the home of her soon to be family in law (what should have been she corrected herself.) Bill Weasley stood a foot away from her glaring into her eyes with unspoken disgust. Fleur cringed slightly at this voicing a single question "What's wrong?" As she looked into his eyes he spoke with much venom in his voice "I am breaking off the engagement." His words had Fleur nearly in hysterics, "Mi Amore why?" Bill sneered at her question "I can't be with an animal like you." Fleur had run tears streaming down her face at those words. ~~~~~

She couldn't understand what had changed, Bill had for some time now been treating her coldly pushing her further and further away. Any time she tried asking him what was wrong he'd simply brush her off. Molly had tried to convince her that Bill was under a lot of stress and having a hard time coming to terms with the death of his two youngest siblings. Bill had missed the conclusion of the war having been in Egypt on business for the Order. But in the end Fleur believed none of it. Gone was the man who she had loved a heartless bastard had taken his place.

Finding herself standing in front of yet another muggle pub Fleur shook herself from her thoughts and entered the bar. Harry looked to the tavern door wondering who would be coming to get him home at 2 in the afternoon. The beautiful silver blonde haired woman that walked in definitely wasn't Bellatrix or even Tonks. Mentally shrugging he returned to his drink. He didn't notice the woman had taken a seat next to him and placed her order with barman.

For an hour they drank in silence not even aware of one another's presence. It wasn't until the barman came over to bring yet another glass of Vodka to Harry did something happen. As the barman left them Fleur turned to face him nearly choking on her Rum as she recognized him, "Arry?" The wizard in question shot her a weak grin as he raised his glass a milimeter in greeting "The one and only."

The two had spent the next hour engaging in light (and drunken) conversation catching up with one another's lives since the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Harry had first wandlessly cast a non-verbal muffilatio charm to give them a measure of privacy. It wouldn't do for the muggles in the bar to hear of Dragons, Infiltrating the ministry or breaking into the wizarding bank Gringotts. Fleur had been terrified to hear of Harry's duels with Voldemort, and Harry had been seething with rage when Fleur mentioned Bill's recent treatment of her.

This prompted Fleur to convince Harry to leave the pub with her. "Arry" Fleur began once they were comfortably seated in the living room of Harry's Manchester Flat. "I think zat Bill may 'ave been imperiused. But I doubt this, Ee'z very cautious when dealing with Dark Magic." Harry looked the silver-blond Veela in the eyes as he questioned her "Who would have put him under the curse though. Seems to me the Aurors have little to do what with the Dark Wankers death and all two years ago."

Fleur looked down to the beer bottle in her hand and sighed tiredly "Zat I do not know, To be honest I don't care." Harry could sense the Veela's emotions in her words he knew she was still hurting from Bill's words, but he felt a sense of finality that told him she had accepted Bill's wish to leave her. She just needed time to get over this. "Fleur" Harry began softly. She looked up at him, "I know how much pain you're in over this." Fleur glared at him "Non, you cannot understand what I am going through. With Bill I thought I had finally found my soul mate to a Veela a love like that comes along only once in our lifetime."

Fleur started to get up as if to leave but Harry's pained expression and angry snarl held her in place as Harry too stood up from his seat "I wasn't saying I know what you're going through I was just saying I understand your pain as I happen to be dealing with the deaths of my best friends and the only father figure I had left in this world. It's been two goddamn years and I still haven't gotten over Ron, Ginny and Remus!" Fleur looked down shamefacedly she realized how poorly she had chosen her words.

As he continued a strangled sob was audible in his voice as he spoke "Their lifeless eyes haunt my dreams. Flashes of green lights accompany the cold laughter of that bastard Voldemort as countless screams of those locked in combat around us ring out into the darkness while battlefields blur toghether in mass carnage. Sleep never comes to me I watch them die over and over each night." Fleur's face showed her horror at the images he'd sown in her mind as he finished speaking in barely more than a whisper. She saw the tears running unchecked down his face as she put her bottle on the glass top coffee table.

Without stopping to think she walked over to where he stood and threw her arms around his neck and began sobbing into his chest, "I'm sorry, 'Arry I- I didn't know." Harry didn't think about what he was doing he just held her to him and cried with her as he replied. "No Fleur I shouldn't have snapped at you, I'm the one who should apologize." Fleur hiccuped once as she her sobs reached an end "Non I shouldn't 'ave been so harsh on you."

Harry looked down into the Veela's eyes thinking she still looked flawless even with her face flushed from crying, her eyes red, the stench of rum on her breath as he spoke softly "No worries Fleur it's not your fault, besides we've both been drinking heavily. Fleur gave him a watery smile "Drinking ee'z no excuse, but I am tired 'Arry." Harry glanced at his watch momentarily seeing it was nearly 11 pm he made a quick decision "You could stay here with me tonight if you like." Fleur released her hold on him as she considered his offer.

"But where will I sleep?" Harry replied without hesitation "Take my bed I'll sleep here on the couch." Fleur wouldn't hear of it they argued over the couch for 5 minutes before Fleur suggested they just shared the bed. Harry was taken aback at this blushing slightly as he sputtered out "B-but I- I'd be fine, O-on the couch." Fleur laughed lightly "Non 'Arry let's just share your bed we've already shared an intimate moment as it is crying togezzer like zat." As Harry led her into his bedroom he jokingly said "What does this make us? shouldn't we take things slowly? "Fleur gave him a suggestive wink "Maybe I don't want to take zings slowly" With that she gave him a light kiss on the corner of his lips.

A mere two hours later Harry was woken by a voice shouting his name from his living room fireplace. As he launched himself sideways off of his bed he wondered aloud "Who the ruddy Hell makes a floo call at 1 in the morning?" Fleur had also woken up and she followed Harry in a groggy haze as he dashed into the living room. Harry's question was answered for him when he saw a panicked look on the face of Nymphadora Tonks In the Floo, "Bout damn time you got outta bed the Ministry is under attack we need your help!" Harry's jaw dropped as he scrambled back into the bedroom and retrieved his wand cursing his lack of vigilance as he went, "Moody'll have my head for not having my wand before checking on shit like this." Fleur had grabbed her wand when she ran out after Harry in his initial scramble. Wand at the ready he stepped through the floo with Fleur coming through after him.

The Pink haired Auror didn't register any suprise at seeing Fleur accompanying Harry and the three set off down the length of the Atrium towards the lift fighting their way through a few death eaters. Noticing the bodies of several ministry workers Harry immediately began throwing lethal curses into the masked bastards "Dammit I thought I was finished with these bastards after I killed ole Tommy boy!" No spells had yet been fired at him or the two witches accompanying him as the Death Eaters were pre-occupied with a squad of Aurors and they fell easily to the unexpected reinforcements.

Finally reaching the lift the three stepped in with Harry quickly questioning his post-war time partner in the field "Dora what the Hell is going on here!?! Tonks kept her voice level as she hurriedly filled him in "I don't know how it happened I was about to head home for the night when all Hell breaks loose a group of people down from level 9 came running up into the DMLE offices yelling about Death Eaters breaking into the Department of Mysteries next thing I know there's a battle raging around my ears." Harry paled at hearing 'Department of Mysteries' Fleur looked at him in concern "Arry what is it?" Harry didn't seem to hear her, He tried to keep the panicked edge from his voice "Bellatrix, where is Bellatrix?" Tonks' expression changed from worry to horror, as she spoke "She went down into the DoM to help fight."

Harry's blood ran cold with Tonks' statement. Placing his hand on the lift keys he forced his magic into it and forced the lift to rapidly descend to level 9. Upon reaching the floor he sprinted down the corridors straight into the Hall of The Veil where he saw Bellatrix, Moody, Kingsley, David Greengrass and several Aurors he didn't recognize by sight battling a number of death eaters led by a dark haired woman with an olive colored skin tone and a young man who looked a lot like Blaise Zabini.

The three split up and went after different targets Tonks and Fleur went to the aide of Moody who was trading curses with a group of 3 rather skilled death eaters while Harry went to help Kingsley and Bellatrix against the woman he now recognized as Lilith Zabini and the man who looked similar to Blaise. Bone Breakers, Blood Boiling Hexs, Flesh Eating Curses, Organ Bursting Hexs and other equally gruesome curses were used liberally by both sides of the fight as adrenaline and hatred fuelled the desire to win in all the combatants.

Moody saw through his magical eye as Harry gave a brutal account of himself wasting no time engaging the Masked Wankers and held nothing back. Later Moody would admit he was impressed by Harry. His protogee was practically staggering around in a drunken haze dealing out devastating blows with his curses as he managed to avoid the spells thrown at him. Dora and Fleur were slowly cutting a path back to Harry, When Kingsley suddenly threw Harry to the ground the two barely missing being hit by a killing curse sent at them from a new combatant to join Lillith Zabini in the fight.

Harry roared as he recognized the tall muscular death eater known as Rodulphus Lestrange. "LESTRANGE" - Bellatrix had her back to Rodolphus as she dueled Lilith, Tonks saw Rodulphus prepare to use the killing curse and screamed "Bella behind you!" Bellatrix rolled out of the path of the killing curse as Harry watched in Horror as she rolled right into the path of a second curse she'd seen from the corner of her eye, too late that this one would hit her. The last thing the dark haired witch did before the green curse hit her was to look upon Harry the young man that had meant so much to her from the time she first broke out of Azkaban with Sirius. Smiling sadly at Harry as the curse struck.

Two screams of grief and rage rang out over the sounds of battle as Tonks shot the killing curse at Rodulphus as Harry shot one at Lillith. Somehow Harry missed his mark and the sickly green light of the killing curse splashed harmlessly against a wall. Dora's curse had found its mark in Rodulphus. Harry threw Kingsley off of him and charged up to Lillith Zabini faster than she could react, he grabbed her around her throat snarling as he strangled her "You fucking bitch. you just took away the last family I had left." Lilith was choking in his grasp but all Harry saw was red he smashed the choking woman head first into the hard stone wall behind her and an obvious loud cracking sound was heard by all present as the woman's neck snapped under the force of the impact.

Harry threw the corpse to the ground his adrenaline suddenly spent not even aware that the remaining death eaters had fled using concealed portkeys when they saw Rodulphus fall to the killing curse. Harry stumbled over to the body of Bellatrix unaware of the other Aurors watching him as he sank to his knees beside the woman that had been there for him during his darkest hours since he was 13 sobbing openly. Two women ran up to him one still in shock the other sharing his grief.


End file.
